Apple moves to prevent kids from racking up iTunes bills

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In this photo taken Dec. 7, 2010, Sawyer Rummelhart, 4, holds his mothers iPad showing the game "The Smurf's Village, " at his families home in Gridley, Calif.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

In this photo taken Dec. 7, 2010, Sawyer Rummelhart, 4, points to the "The Smurf's Village" app on his mothers iPad, at his families home in Gridley, Calif.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

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In this photo taken Dec. 7, 2010, Kelly Rummelhart and her son, Sawyer, 4, who unwittingly racked up nearly $70 in purchases on "The Smurf's Village" game he played on her IPad, are seen in their home in Gridley, Calif.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

NEW YORK — Apple has changed how purchases inside iPhone and iPad games are authorized after customers complained that their children were racking up hundreds of dollars worth of charges.

The issue was that after a user entered his or her iTunes password on a device, the device didn’t prompt for the password again for 15 minutes. Any purchases, whether in the iTunes store or inside kid-friendly games such as “The Smurf’s Village,” went through without a new password prompt.

This meant that parents who handed over their iPhones or iPads to their kids were sometimes shocked by large purchases of “Smurfberries” and other virtual bling.

An Associated Press story in December highlighted the phenomenon. A subsequent story in The Washington Post prompted Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., to ask the Federal Trade Commission to look into the issue.

With the iOS 4.3 software update, Apple devices have one 15-minute password-free timer for the App Store and iTunes, and a separate one for in-app purchases, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said.

Muller said she couldn’t say why Apple made the change.

Free, child-friendly games that allow in-app purchases are still on the list of top-grossing apps in the App Store. At the top is “Tap Zoo,” and “Smurfs’ Village” is No. 6. “Smurfberries” and similar items in other games allow players to speed up what is otherwise very slow processes, such growing crops for the Smurfs.

The parents the AP talked to for the December story had received refunds from Apple for the inadvertent purchases.